


relentless and charged with magic

by sandyk



Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, Identity Reveal, Peter Parker Can't Thermoregulate, Rated teen for so much swearing, Seizure, car crash, getting together very slowly, tiny bit of Liz and Peter being romantic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:07:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27046210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sandyk/pseuds/sandyk
Summary: When Peter comes in through the window in his Spider-man suit, MJ is sitting on his bed. She's actually very helpful on the Spider-man work.
Relationships: May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones/Peter Parker, Ned Leeds & Peter Parker
Comments: 6
Kudos: 43
Collections: Fic In A Box





	relentless and charged with magic

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LadySilver](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadySilver/gifts).



> Not mine and no profit garnered. Title from Alela Diane's Rising Greatness. Thank you A!!!! The name Choppy comes from the TWoP recaps of ER.

Still thinking about his lost backpack, Peter crawled along the ceiling and then oh so slowly closed the door, just a little at a time. He jumped down quietly and looked at OH MY GOD Michelle Jones sitting on his lower bunk with her eyes wide and fuck, fuck, what the fuck? He hit the emblem and shrugged off his suit and fell on his butt by his desk, still staring at her. She inexplicably threw a pair of jeans at him while he pulled on the nearest shirt like garment he could find. He shoved his arms around and he tugged his jeans up to his hips when May came in OH MY GOD HOLY SHIT WHAT IS THIS RIGHT NOW. 

"Peter? Peter, did you just come in? Through the window? What are you doing?"

"I'm, I'm -- why is Michelle here?"

Michelle said, "I brought your chemistry book and lab binder, we were supposed to -"

May said, "Michelle is not the issue here, Peter. You're sneaking in through the window. I know it's not the first time, I know it's not. Cut it, tell me what's going on, right now." Her voice broke a little and Peter felt like a complete asshole. 

He inhaled and exhaled and tried to think and also Michelle now knew he was Spider-man, THE FUCK, and he needed to think and stop May from crying. May couldn't cry, he couldn't do that to her. He said, "It's, it's --"

"The Stark internship," Michelle said, flatly. "That's --"

"Yes," Peter said. "Yes. But it's not, I'm just helping. Spider-man, I'm helping Spider-man, and I sneak out when he needs help because I know you wouldn't want me to, you know?" He found he could stand up, in his bare feet. Why would he be in bare feet after sneaking in the window? He hoped May didn't notice.

"Are you, you're helping Spider-man? Why? Why would he need your help, Peter?" May rubbed her forehead and looked behind her and then back at Peter.

"I'm smart, I'm smart, I can help," Peter said. "It's like, um, web fluid, for his webs and supplies, things he needs. That's why I keep losing my backpacks! I lost another one. Today. But I'm not actually in danger. Not really."

May shook her head. "You're sneaking out all the time to help him and that's the Stark Internship and," she said and stopped. "Peter, you can't do that."

Peter swallowed and felt stuck in place. "I can, I have been. It's not the whole Stark Internship. There's other stuff. But I met him, Spider-man, met him through that and he needed help and he's a good guy and he's all about the little guy, and I'm fine. Look at me, I'm fine."

Michelle said, "Wasn't there a fire at Delmar's tonight? I just saw it on Twitter. Were you there?"

Peter stared at her instead of May. Then he said, "I wasn't there, not there. I was nearby, but not in any danger zone. That wouldn't happen."

May said, "No, no, Peter, you can't do this. You can't just put yourself in danger. Peter, you can't." She was very very close to crying. "I've been waiting for you to actually talk to me, you can't do things like this."

Peter rushed forward and hugged her. "No, it's fine, I'm fine. I'm not in danger at all."

"Of course you are," May said. She was squeezing him hard enough he thought he might bruise. Briefly. "Peter, we have to talk about this."

"I know," Peter said. "But also, I'm starving?"

May let go and almost rolled her eyes. "We're not even close to done."

"I think I am, I shouldn't stay --" Michelle stood up, dropping the book and binder on the floor and walking past them. 

"Wait," Peter said. He caught up with her right by the door. "I feel like we need to talk, like a lot."

She nodded. She actually looked pretty shell shocked. 

May said, "Wait, Michelle, I can drive you home. Apparently, there's people setting places on fire out there tonight." 

"No, no," Michelle said. "I can take the bus."

"Not happening," May said. "You had to witness all of this, I can at least make sure you get home alive." 

Michelle looked at Peter with a much less shocked face. She said, "Maybe Peter could just call his close friend Spider-man." 

Peter laughed and then stopped. May laughed a little, too, and said, "I like you." She grabbed her purse. "Peter, put on some shoes, please. We'll take Michelle home and then we'll get some dinner and talk all this over."

Peter had to sit in the passenger seat so all he could do is try to meet Michelle's eyes in the rearview mirror but she stared at her phone. He hoped she wasn't texting everyone she knew that Peter Parker was Spider-man. He looked through his phone until he found a few texts from her and started typing. He was basically begging her to not tell anyone. He hit send.

She said, out loud, "Ugh, don't worry so much, Peter."

May said, "You don't need to worry about Michelle."

He texted her again that he needed to know she would be cool. She texted back that she was cool, he was never cool, and she would call him later after his aunt killed him. 

May didn't kill him. She didn't cry again, so that was also good. They had a pretty good dinner at a Ethiopian place Peter loved. Peter said he wasn't going to be in danger about five hundred times. May said she didn't believe him until she gave in. She hated the sneaking around. She hated that he wasn't doing as many activities at school. He accepted her new restrictions about times of day he could go out and "help Spider-man." He could make it work. He just wanted her to be okay. 

Peter knew he had no chance of convincing May he would be okay. She was always worried. He knew she had every reason to be. She said, "We're all we have, Peter," and he nodded, he knew it. He had to take care of her, too. It went both ways. He had to protect her. 

Michelle called and Peter closed the door to his bedroom tightly. She said, "I can't believe it. I should have figured it out."

"What do you mean? Why would you have figured it out?"

"You and your … internship," Michelle said. "Why did Stark give you that suit and not a decent phone? I saw your phone. Your laptop is crap, too." She paused. He tried to picture her face but he couldn't read her tone. She said, "Is it because you're middle class? You're all wrapped up in pride and not taking handouts?"

"I never even asked," Peter said. 

"You should. You should have a better phone. And laptop. You should call Stark and ask him," she said. 

"I don't really talk to him directly," Peter said. "I talk to Happy. I text Happy and I leave reports. I don't hear back very often. But I've got the suit."

Michelle sighed noisily. She said, "Tell me from the start. And define who people are, don't just say Happy like I should know that's a grown man."

He did what she said. She made sympathetic noises at a few places. Then she said, "So you don't have any contacts or training and you're just, like, rescheduling your entire life about being out there frightening your Aunt to death."

"And helping people," Peter said. 

Michelle said, "And, this was really bothering me, why is your underwear so big? Those are basically just shorts. It's weird. It's not like I was looking, but it was right there and I don't get it."

Peter said, "Stop, stop. It is weird. It's just, you know, I know they're too big, but May has this thing about me being a responsible teen and she'll only do my laundry of what's in the basket and it doesn't matter. But those were the ones that were clean this morning, okay? It's weird."

She exhaled loudly again. "Okay, we're going to talk about the Spider-man stuff tomorrow. I have conditions on not telling your Aunt --"

"What? No, you can't do that," Peter said.

"I won't, but you've gotta work this better," she said. "Email that Happy person you need a new phone. And maybe a laptop. You're supposed to be doing intern things for a company bigger than most countries and all your stuff is crap."

"Fine, fine," he said. 

He emailed Happy and tried to go to sleep. He woke up in the middle of the night and grabbed his suit from the corner of the room where he'd shoved it. He shook it out and folded it up nicely. Then he unfolded it. Then he rolled it up with a sweatshirt. Aunt May said he would need to use one of her tote bags until Spider-man decided to replace Peter's backpack. A rolled up sweatshirt would work in a tote bag.

He emailed Happy again and asked for a backpack. Since he was already asking for things. 

***

Peter got to school early and grabbed a generic latte for Michelle. He should have paid more attention to her drinks. They'd had six classes together freshman year, they had a bunch of classes together this year. He'd always thought she was cool. But also, she was creepy. She did things like keep track of his schedule. She called him creepy because of Liz. They were both creeps, he thought.

Michelle sat down next to him on the steps. She said, "I've been thinking. About all this. Why didn't you, is this why you quit robotics? Why you're trying to quit Acadec?"

"Yeah, I have to, you know, Spider-man stuff," Peter said. "It's important."

She looked at him steadily. She said, "So's school. So is being an actual human person. You should be doing that, too."

"School's boring," Peter said. "I'd rather be doing something else. Something important."

"But Stark doesn't need you. He's not going to need you that weekend. He's keeping hands off because, I don't know. He's an asshole? But they aren't asking you to be available all the time. That's you," she said. She frowned. "That's no way to live, loser."

"Like you know," Peter said. "Are you an expert?"

"No, but it's not hard to know better than a fifteen year old white boy, despite what you might see on the news or in every piece of media ever," Michelle said. 

"Luke Skywalker was kind of a dumbass," Peter said. He smiled at her. He wasn't exactly upset. 

"Okay," Michelle said. "Okay. Here's what I think. You should rejoin robotics. You had fun. And Ned likes it, too. You need a friend, dude. You should hang out more and not spend every minute in your Stark suit."

Peter shrugged. He wasn't unhappy with his current life but he really needed May to be, somehow, more happy. Happier. He said, "What are you going to do if I don't?"

"Tell May you're Spider-man," Michelle said. "Also, you should get back on Acadec. We need you at Nationals. You like Liz, she likes you, there's a plan."

"She doesn't like me like that," Peter said. "Come on."

"You're incredibly smart, you're nice, unnaturally muscular, it's not weird people like you," Michelle said. She was just holding the latte. He wondered if she liked coffees at all. Maybe he should have gotten a different kind of milk. 

Peter said, "Okay. So I do all that, then you're happy?"

Michelle said, "You have to consult me when you're out being Spider-man."

"Why? Do you want me to call you when I see someone stealing a bicycle?"

She actually sipped her latte. She liked it, he was sure. He smiled again. This was a much easier conversation than he'd been anticipating. She said, "I just, you don't know anything. I may not know much, but I like true crime and I'm much more aware of how the world works. And cops, too."

"I know stop and frisk is bad, and," Peter stopped. He didn't really have an answer to that. It wouldn't hurt to talk to someone. "Okay. Got it. Did you like the latte? Do you want another kind of milk?"

Michelle said, "I like oat milk. But I don't hate regular cow. Have you ever had a lavender latte? That's good stuff." 

He nodded. "Okay." He looked down at his phone. "I guess I'm getting a new phone. Happy's dropping it off this afternoon. Also he wants to know what kind of backpack."

Michelle took his phone and typed "tumi." "Tumi is seriously high end."

"Why do I need a seriously high end backpack?"

"So you think twice before losing it, dipshit," Michelle says. "Also, they're really well made."

"Okay," Peter said. "This is really weird."

"I know," Michelle said. "I'm not obsessed with you, you know."

"Yeah, you just know my whole life and schedule," he said. It seemed inconceivable that Michelle was interested in him, but he guessed that was it. May always told him lots of people were bad at expressing how they feel. She said people do the oddest things and it was supposed to mean I love you or something. "Okay, we have to go to class. See you at lunch?"

"Or in the two classes we have together before that?"

"Yeah," Peter said. 

"You better have rejoined robotics and acadec by lunch, too," Michelle said. "And make plans with Ned. He was talking about some Lego crap. You should do that." 

Peter did everything he was being blackmailed to do. Or maybe extorted. It felt more gentle than a crime. 

Michelle sat across from him and Ned at lunch instead of three seats down, even if all she did was read. 

Happy was waiting for him after school, which was shocking. He handed over a backpack that looked very very sleek and had sort of reflective leather. Peter opened it and saw a phone, laptop, and pad. "Do you want anything else?" Happy never sounded like he wanted to be near Peter.

"No, sorry, sorry."

Happy grunted and got back in the limo. "Talk to you later."

Then Peter found Ned and they went to Peter's and built the Death Star. Peter totally lost track of time. May came in and tapped her watch, saying, "Peter, if you're going to help your friend today you only have half an hour to do it."

"Oh," Peter said. "I guess he doesn't need me today."

Ned said, "Which friend?"

"Oh, he didn't tell you? Me either," May said. "Why didn't you tell Ned you were helping Spider-man?"

"No way," Ned said. "No way."

"I wasn't supposed to tell anyone," Peter said. "Keep people safe. It's just part of the Stark internship. Sometimes I get stuff to Spider-man." Peter grabbed his new Tumi backpack from the bed. "And he got me a backpack. Okay?"

May took the backpack. "This is really nice. You better not lose it."

"You're helping Spider-man? For real?" Ned nearly dropped the Death Star as he moved it out of the way so he could see Peter more clearly. Like that was helpful. 

"Yes," Peter said, trying not to sound exasperated. 

May said, "Why don't you two come out for dinner in ten minutes or so?"

"Thanks, May," Ned said. "I can't believe you know Spider-man! Is he totally cool? Do you know if he can control spiders or is it just a design theme? What part do you do?" 

"He can't control spiders," Peter said. "Um, I, I work on the web fluid part. Just to help." 

"Unbelievable, how do you not tell everyone? You know Spider-man. And Iron Man, right?"

"I've met them," Peter said. "But I don't know know them."

"He doesn't mean do you have a deep relationship with them," May said, almost laughing. 

Ned said, "Do you?"

"I don't," Peter said. "I told you, I met Tony Stark a few times, but not since when I first started." He did smile, though, Ned was right. It was pretty cool. He knew these people, he was one of those people. It was so cool. "It's cool, though."

"Totally," Ned said reverently. 

So it was the day after when Peter first went out as Spider-man with Michelle insisting he had to call her. It turned out the suit was really wired to his new phone, so once he called Michelle, he could just put the phone in its own little pocket and her voice came through the mask, very good bluetooth. It was pretty awesome. 

She said, "Did you change where I told you? And leave your clothes and backpack someplace safe?"

"I did all of that," Peter said. 

"So what do you do now? Where's your gameplan?"

"I don't have one?" 

"You just jump around until you see something happen, of course you do," Michelle said. "I did some super basic research. Like, looking at crime blotters and some other websites you might want to check out." She laid out neighborhoods she thought he could check out that had a higher incidence of crimes happening on the street. "Mostly, the big lethal crimes happen inside the home, not outside where you are."

"I did know that," Peter said, already swinging towards the closest neighborhood she mentioned. 

He stopped suddenly and jumped down to the street where he saw a SUV about to go up on the sidewalk. He landed in front of it and pulled up the front bumper to stop it but it had already hit someone. It hurt, lifting the car was a lot of pressure on his arms and back and his legs but he could take it. He could see through the window and the driver was having a seizure, half slumped over and probably still had her foot on the accelerator. 

Peter lifted the car higher and pushed back a little, the driver fell back and wrenched herself sideways. No more accelerating. Peter could put down the car and he did. He jumped to the driver side door, opened it and pulled the driver out, she was still seizing. "She's having a seizure," he said. 

"Don't try to put anything in her mouth," Michelle said. "Just get her on her side."

"I know," Peter said. "I know what to do." He'd watched a lot of first aid videos on youtube. 

He heard someone calling 911, somewhere farther away he heard an ambulance's sirens starting up and getting louder. People were driving around them, some slowing down to gawk, some just slowing down so they didn't accidentally run over someone. He hopped over the seizing lady's quieting legs and took the keys out of the car, dropped them into the purse next to the seat. 

The ambulance pulled up and Peter stood while the EMTs did their work, then put her purse in her arms as everyone up and left. People were still staring and watching as the cops pulled up and were fussing over the car.

Peter went up and then down again around the corner. Just like he'd thought, there was a man with a bloody bloody pantleg and nothing good under it. "Car hit me," he said. 

"The ambulance already left," Peter said.

"Not everyone can afford an ambulance trip," Michelle said in his ear. "There's a free clinic only two blocks away."

"I know," Peter said, very quietly. 

The guy said, "Can you help me get to the clinic?" 

"Got it," Peter said. He was very careful of how he half carried the man, fractures from a car collision were pretty bad. When he got inside the clinic, the man lurched forward and Peter made sure he landed safely in a wheelchair. Peter waved and left, going up again. 

Michelle said, "There's already video of you holding that car back."

Peter thought, does it look cool? He felt like Michelle would judge him if he said that out loud. 

She said, "How fast was that car going?"

"I don't know, about forty miles per hour, I guess," he said. 

"Are you okay? That's a lot of, you're really strong," Michelle said. 

"I am really strong," Peter said. "I'm okay, I could take it."

"Good," Michelle said. "I figured but that's good."

He arrived at the neighborhood Michelle wanted him in and perched on a roof. "Anything specific you think I should focus on?"

"Um," she said. "There's lots of police reports of what they call nuisance crimes, and reports like on blogs, people getting their cars broken into, illegal dumping. It's funny because broken glass policing is --"

"I know," Peter said. "We talked about it last year, you did a whole presentation about how it's bad. I remember."

"I didn't realize you were paying attention," Michelle said.

"And we have some guy breaking into cars," Peter said, gliding down. "Come on, Mister, people need their stuff."

"Fuck off," some guy said. He took off running. 

"Have you considered a jobs program?" Peter called after him. Peter went up and down a few more streets, it was apparently breaking into cars hour. He stopped five separate guys over ten blocks. He walked three little kids to their home. He also helped two guys who were sweeping the street by moving some heavy bags of crap to a dumpster. 

Michelle said, "You should go home now."

"Got it," Peter said. "Are you going to do this every time?"

"Maybe," Michelle said. 

"I don't, I don't know if I need you," Peter said. "Nothing personal. But I'm fine."

"I don't think you are," Michelle said. "Don't you have to make reports to someone? What do they say about your progress?"

"I just leave reports," Peter said. "They don't get back to me. I leave messages for Happy."

"You need feedback," Michelle said. 

Peter said, "Thanks for the feedback."

He called and left his report for Happy, not mentioning Michelle at all. Happy and Tony wouldn't approve, he was sure of that. 

So now he had Michelle. Michelle told him he should go to Liz's party, "You're invited, okay? Everyone's invited. This isn't some badly written nineties teen movie where people are all one-dimensional and everything's about cliques." 

So Peter and Ned went. Michelle kept saying Liz liked Peter, so Peter talked to her. Liz was pretty cool and they were definitely vibing, they were doing something. 

Michelle interrupted and dragged Peter away. There was a purple explosion. He should investigate, she insisted. He totally agreed so off he went. When he came back from getting shot at and almost drowned and lectured by Tony Stark remotely, he found a purple glowy thing. He showed it to Michelle and she insisted he send the picture to Tony Stark. So when Peter got home from the party, he got a completely weird visit from Vision who floated outside his window. "That core is explosive, it was good for you to let Tony know you found it."

"Got it," Peter said. He texted Michelle even though he knew she would be totally smug.

She texted back, "I told you so." 

Monday at school, she pulled at his sleeve, frowning. "Look, I hate this, but you have to meet my parents. And since they're divorced, that's two nights of dinner."

"Sounds fun," Peter said. "Your parents are divorced, huh?"

She stared at him. "Since I was seven. I have an older sister, but she's off to college now. This year. And I have a baby brother. He's two. That's my mom and my stepfather. My dad's girlfriend lives with him but they're not getting married. So … Dad heard me on the phone with you and saw me talking to you at Liz's party when he picked me up. So bang. Michelle has a friend. Let's all meet him."

"You're my only friend whose parents are divorced," Peter said. It was a lot of information to take in about Michelle. 

"Don't you just have Ned?"

"And you," Peter said. "We're friends, right?"

Michelle nodded. She said, "Okay. Stick to that story when you meet my parents."

Peter smiled. "It's not a story, right. Right?"

Michelle's dad worked in health insurance and his girlfriend worked in re-insurance. "Same with Mom," Michelle said. 

Michelle's dad was serving jerk chicken. "Jennifer's family from Jamaica. She taught me this," Michelle's dad said. Jennifer was the girlfriend. 

"Delicious, it's really great," Peter said. "Thank you for having me over."

Michelle was only slightly more relaxed around her family than she was at school. She spoke more, by a small margin. She was still just as pretty. 

She really smiled a lot around her baby brother, though. Peter got macaroni and cheese at her mom's house. Michelle's mom worked in life insurance and her stepfather worked for the city, school administration. 

Michelle's rooms were different in each house. "I don't know why I'm surprised," he said. He sat on her day bed in her mom's house. 

Michelle shrugged. "I don't know what your expectations are, dude."

Peter said, "I just mean, you're the same person, it doesn't change from Brooklyn to Queens." This room had fewer bookcases and more art supplies. "I bet you have great insurance."

Michelle said, "You're so weird." 

"You should introduce them to Ned, they'll love him," Peter said.

"At some point I guess I'll be forced to," Michelle said. She picked up and put down a baby picture of her brother. 

Michelle answered the winning question at Nationals. She even let everyone hug her. Peter sat next to Liz on the bus home and they talked about everything. He couldn't believe how much she actually liked talking to him. He was pretty sure she thought about him when he wasn't around which was surreal. That someone like Liz liked him. 

He even asked her out. To the dance. He met her scary dad and Liz wore a beautiful dress. They danced. He waved to Michelle. Somewhere on the dance floor, Liz bent down a little and kissed him. It was a magical night. 

Sadly, her creepy dad got arrested the same night by two of the Avengers. "Maybe a little warning, Mr. Stark," Peter said. He hissed on the phone. 

"We didn't know who he was until tonight. It was a very intricate and somewhat unplanned trap and you helped us set it, so good work."

"I went to Homecoming with his daughter," Peter said. 

"I believe you, good work there, too," Mr. Stark said. 

Peter was just miserable for a few days after Liz left. Michelle didn't poke at him about it, she just let him wallow. It was kind of nice. 

Ned kept saying, "You dated a senior."

MIchelle was all over Peter when it came to Spider-man. She acted like she was in charge, and she was all of three months older than him. He was the one with the super powers. He was the one with the actual responsibility. He thought about just telling May but that would probably be the exact same thing. It would actually be worse. 

He could tell Ned, he thought about that. It would be nice to tell someone and not have it all forced out of him. Then he worried that Ned would be in danger. He already bragged too much about Peter knowing Spider-man. 

Michelle said they should all call her MJ. She was very insistent about it with Peter and Ned. She invited them both over for Christmas eve lunch. She said, "But you're Jewish, right?" to Peter. 

He said, "Sort of? Yes. My mom was, and up until my parents died, that's how I was raised. But Ben and May aren't, and they aren't even really religious, so it was more like, they tried. May tries. We don't have a Christmas tree and I've gone to a few High Holy Days services. You know. Basically. We still eat bacon."

"We'll bring presents for you but not with Santas on the wrapping paper," Ned said. 

Peter followed May's suggestion and bought MJ a nice blank journal and a very nice pen. She probably had a million but this one had a cool cover that reminded him of some of the art in her mom's house. He'd made sure to go to local place with local artists. 

He got Ned a pretty rare Funko, because everyone loved a Funko. 

They sat in MJ's dad's living room. They had a huge tree with tons of ornaments. They exchanged their gifts and then sat back, eating and watching the X-Files Christmas episode. Ned and Peter had both gotten MJ journals and pens, but they had different covers. MJ seemed pretty happy with both. She already had Ned's open on her lap, doodling. 

Ned had to leave first because he had a huge family in every borough and parts of New Jersey. He leaned over and asked MJ if he could hug her. She looked surprised but said yes. Peter took a picture with his phone surreptitiously. 

"I love this episode. I'm not huge into the X-Files, but this one is fun," Peter said. "You've got a lot of ornaments up there."

MJ shrugged. "It's like Facebook, you don't exactly make a post about here's the year that we got t-boned by a drunk driver and my big sister spent a month in the hospital and I still have nightmares."

"That's awful," Peter said. 

"I made that up," MJ said, looking away from him. "Also no ornament for the favorite cousin beaten and strangled by her boyfriend. Made that one up, too."

"I'm sorry?"

"Made it up," MJ said. 

Peter nodded. He literally had no idea if she meant it or not. 

"It's kind of unfair," Peter said to Ned. "All my bad stuff is totally public record. You can just google it. I wish my friends, like, had to disclose."

"I'm your friend, I have nothing to disclose," Ned said. "I could give you a mustard seed."

"What?"

They were waiting for MJ at a coffee shop. She came up and sat down next to them. "Mustards?"

"It's a fairytale," Ned said. "Something like, a woman has a baby and the baby is sick so she goes to a doctor."

MJ said, "And the doctor can't help so he sends the poor woman out to fail, tells her to get a mustard seed from a house that's never known tragedy."

"That's a much more cynical take on it than I heard," Ned said. "Also, I just said I could do it."

MJ frowned. "You know, maybe if you were a sociopath, like, you don't mind that bad things have happened. So you wouldn't think you'd known tragedy."

"You don't mind your dad died because you killed him," Peter said. 

Ned said, "So maybe the doctor should have just sent him to the local serial killers."

"But," Peter said. "You know, it's still tragedy, though. To sociopaths, I mean. Not that their dad died, but that their dad was an obstacle."

"It's a tragedy that their dad made them kill them," MJ said. "So no one but the young has one, and not even all of them."

Ned said, "Maybe it's the house. Maybe if you go to a house the very first day it's built." He leaned forward. "The house itself is what matters."

"It's a real estate scheme," Peter said, smiling. "But also, how do you define tragedy?"

"Some of them are very straightforward," MJ said. "But you mean the marginal cases. Divorce if it's amicable, almost dying."

"All the trauma specialists say trauma can be a lot of things," Peter said. "Like that?"

MJ said, "Like that," very firmly. 

Peter looked it up and told both of them at lunch the next day. "You know it's a Buddhist story, it's not a trick and it's not tragedy. It's death. It's an important part of Buddhist teachings? You need a mustard seed from every family that hasn't known death. And it's meant to teach that death is part of life, it's always present."

Ned said, "Oh, that's much better. The original is much better."

MJ nodded, too. "Good research, Parker." He felt pretty smart for a minute. 

When they went back to school after winter break, Peter decided he didn't need to consult with MJ about every little thing he did. He called Tony and left a message. "I've got some ideas about web fluid, and maybe working on the suit?"

Tony actually called him back. "Dazzle me, webhead."

Peter started listing the ideas he'd had and even worked on some afternoons.

Tony said, "Excellent ideas. Why don't you come in tomorrow and we'll work on it?"

Peter told MJ right before Happy came to pick him up after school. MJ said, "Cool. Have fun. You can tell me things, you know. I just don't want you to die."

"I want to be in charge, too," Peter said. "Sometimes I don't feel in charge, you know."

MJ looked at him and had a look of disgust, he thought. "Peter, you're in charge. Duh."

He had a great time with Mr. Stark. It turned out his suit had a ton of web combinations, though not three of the ones Peter had thought up. Mr. Stark patted his shoulder, said, "Smart work, kid."

"You're doing good out there, Petey. Keeping track of the little guy. I'm gonna let you in on some of the parts of the suit I haven't given you access to. Take off some training wheels," Mr. Stark said. 

It was really nice, but the next morning, it started to bug him. Ha ha, bug, Peter thought. He was fifteen, he could stop a truck with his bare hands and Mr. Stark thought he needed training wheels? How did he even fucking know? They'd met in person five total times over the course of eight months. That was kind of bullshit. Peter was out there four, five times a week. It used to be every day until MJ made him stop. He'd created his web fluid, he'd created combinations Mr. Stark hadn't even thought of. 

He knew a lot fucking more than people gave him credit for. 

He explained the new web combinations to MJ and she said, "Wow, you sound angry."

"I'm not," Peter said. "I'm fine."

"You can be angry," MJ said.

"Thanks for the permission," Peter said. "I'm just, you know, tired. I do a lot of work, you know, I'm not an idiot."

"No one who knows you thinks you're at all an idiot," MJ said. "They think you're a genius, it's more about common sense."

"Again," Peter said. "I'm not an idiot. I have common sense."

"Sure," MJ said. "I know. Also, we're fifteen. We only think we know everything."

"Are you still going to monitor all my time out?"

"I thought I was helping," MJ said. "Don't you think so or are you too busy being mad that everyone doesn't treat you like you're ten years older than you are because you're a genius?"

Peter felt a weight in his jaw and shoulders. He thought about so many things he could say to MJ but instead he said, "I'm fine without you."

"Fuck you, too, Peter," she said. 

He was already out in the suit when he thought about MJ telling May. She probably wouldn't. He would apologize tomorrow. Or maybe the day after. 

Or not. 

He went further out than MJ usually sent him. He ran into more muggers, got to be a little more physical than usual. He didn't want to permanently hurt anyone but he liked making people pay. Nice and simple. 

It snowed heavily after Peter got home. The next morning, it nearly shut down the city and the electricity went out, too. "Thank goodness for Tony Stark," May said, looking out the window. Since after the Chitauri invasion, Mr. Stark had slowly been removing whole parts of New York City from the grid and wiring them on his clean energy. Their apartment was on one of the nodes. 

Ned called. "Want to hang out?"

"We're not supposed to go out, dude," Peter said, already putting on his boots. 

"We're not supposed to drive," Ned said, laughing. "You can get over here, right?"

Peter put on his heavy jacket and grabbed his backpack. He didn't put his suit in it, but he did put on his modified webshooters. They were hidden under his gloves anyway. 

May said, "What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm just walking to Ned's. They have power, too. It's just walking, May, I got it covered. I have my phone, it's fully charged. I'll be fine. Snow day." He grinned. May rolled her eyes and waved him out. 

It was actually pretty fun tromping through the snow, he even took a video that he put on instagram. MJ commented right away, but she was just saying he better not come to visit her. "Wasn't thinking about it," he commented back. Then he felt like he was being an asshole. He commented again that "just cause you're too far away."

Ned came outside, too. They recreated parts of Tattoine in Ned's front yard. It was hilarious. He took another video and posted that one, too. MJ commented again. "You two are such huge nerds."

"Wish you were here," Peter wrote and meant it. 

Then they destroyed it all and started on a new diorama. They went inside Ned's house for lunch. It took Peter a while to warm up, he kept blowing on his fingers. He texted MJ and shook out his fingers after. MJ pointed out all his typos. 

Peter texted back that he was cold. Cold. And added some emojis of ice and snow. 

MJ texted back links to information about spiders and cold. 

Peter rolled his eyes and texted five different gifs expressing that as well. 

They went back outside for another few hours because Peter insisted. He was so tired of being told what to do and what he was supposed to do. It was stupid, he knew it, but also he was Spider-man. 

He trudged home and when he looked around he decided to sneak out as Spider-man. There were a lot of cars accidents and near misses. He still felt cold in his core and fingers and toes, but he remembered the suit had a heater. He said heater a few times and tapped his chest until it finally turned on. Mr. Stark had shown him how to use the phone in the suit so he texted the guy that he really needed to know how to turn the heater on and off. 

Peter swung carefully through the city, stopping every few yards to help people move cars or stop cars from plowing into people. He didn't call MJ because he could handle this. He was fine, he was already warming up. 

Then he saw a bus with kids, weaving a little, more than just slipping on ice. The kids looked scared, two pressing their faces against the back window, looking terrified. The bus was heading towards the bridge. Peter vaulted forward onto the bridge and then backwards. There was someone, there were two people in the front of the bus, both with visible weapons. That was just bullshit, Peter thought. The bus driver looked pale and worried. It was snowing again and the roads were super shitty. 

Peter made a plan and pushed himself through a front window, so he was right in line with the bad guys. They shouted, Peter grabbed the two guns, keeping his grip with his stickiness and just pushing through. He was pretty sure he broke one of the guy's hands on the way. The guns went off, one of them, but Peter just tightened his hand and threw the guns through another window. He elbowed the guy who didn't have the broken hand. He wrapped both men in webs and shoved them down in the well by the front door. 

"Okay, okay," Peter said. He turned to the driver and they were in shock and barely moving and fuck, fuck, not really driving. Peter used the busted window to shoot out more webs, reinforcing the part of the bridge the bus was heading towards. Peter grabbed the wheel and reached down to get the bus driver's feet away from the pedals. The bus teetered forward and stopped at the webs, sliding on the snow and slush. It did stop, though. 

Peter slid down the aisle, he checked on the little kids. No one was bleeding so that was good. Just as he was starting to breathe easily, the bus got hit in the back by another car sliding on the bridge. Everyone jolted forward and the bus was more than a few inches off the bridge now. 

"Okay," Peter said. He flipped through the back window and landed outside. He felt lots of little glass breaking around him, good thing Mr. Stark made a tough suit. He dug his heels in and grabbed the end of the bus, pulling it back. He straightened the bus so the next bump wouldn't send it over. The car that hit the bus had spun out, which was effectively blocking the lanes. He heard sirens coming. He exhaled. 

He reached out and opened the emergency door. "Okay, kids, everybody off." He webbed up a little slide so they moved quickly and even smiled a little. "No worries, here we go," he said. He guided the kids to a pedestrian stairway. Then he jumped back into the bus to pull out the bad guys and the driver. Poor driver, Peter thought, carrying him. When he got out of the back of the bus, there was an ambulance waiting. Even two. "Awesome," he said, handing over the driver.

"Good work, Spider-man," one of the little kids said. "Thank you!"

He was soaking wet from the snow and his arms ached. He saw a mugging in process and stopped that one. Then he lifted his hand and felt a real twinge. Fuck, he thought. He sat down in front of a store. Then he watched a few people walk by and then he shifted so he wasn't quite so in view. "Suit, call MJ."

"What do you want?" 

"Uh," Peter said. He was breathing heavily. He was very cold. Really cold. "Hey, MJ, could you come out, and um, help me? I'm exhausted. I guess I could rest here. I --"

"Shut up and give me the cross streets, you'll probably die of hypothermia," MJ said. 

He was freezing, absolutely freezing. He decided he didn't like the cold. Did not like. He didn't like the heater in his suit that wasn't working, either. He couldn't feel it. He closed his eyes and shook his head. He opened his eyes and tried to stand up but it was really hard. 

MJ was right in front of him. "You got here fast," he said.

"No, I didn't," she said. She opened her bag and rubbed him with a big fluffy towel. 

"Are you buffing me up or something?" 

"Your suit's heater is melting the snow but you're soaked." She put a huge heavy hat on him. Then she took it off. "Take off your mask," she said. He did what she said and put the hat back on. She wound a scarf around his neck. "I got you a jacket." She took off her jacket and he realized she was wearing two. "I got fleece leggings, too." He slowly got dressed and put on the boots she'd given him.

"You carried a lot of stuff," Peter said. "Thanks."

"I sent you articles, you're clearly a weird spider person who is more sensitive to cold," MJ said. She let him lean on her as they walked back to his apartment. He very very slowly started to warm up even as they got snowed on.

She got him up to his apartment. May was still asleep somehow. Small blessings, he thought. He was still weak and aching. MJ pushed him sitting on his bed and started stripping off his things. "Take off your suit, dumbass." She pressed the emblem. 

Her fingers felt very warm on his arms and legs. He didn't want to say anything about his underwear but it was just regular boxer briefs this time. She was gone and back with sweats and socks. "You have to be nice to me now," MJ said. "Even if you're having a teenage tantrum."

"Got it, I got it. I can get you all your stuff back when we get back to school. Or in pieces, I guess? I don't know," Peter said. She tucked him into bed. "Thanks, MJ. You're the best."

"I am," she said, sniffling. "I saw what you did with the bus, that was pretty awesome."

"Thanks," Peter said. He was already curling in on himself. 

"Before you fall asleep, I'm putting all of this away because I'm much nicer than you deserve."

"You are," Peter said. "You really are."

Peter woke up in the morning when his phone went off. As he grabbed his phone, he heard May in the other room making coffee. It was Mr. Stark on the phone. Mr. Stark said, "Good work yesterday, nice moves out there."

"Thanks," Peter said. He thought he didn't need training wheels, and then he thought of MJ, paying for a cab and trudging around with a bag of towels and boots. He said nothing. 

"In fact, I was thinking, let's get together more. Let's make this an internship. You come round here once a week or so, does that fit in your schedule?"

"Yes, yes, it really does," Peter said. "As long as I don't miss academic decathlon, my friends do that with me."

"Good, good, set some boundaries. Now tell me what day that is so we can schedule you," Tony said. He sounded impatient. 

"Oh, oh, let's do Wednesday, can you do Wednesday?" 

Mr. Stark agreed. Since MJ was in Peter's head, Peter said, "Is this a paid internship? It doesn't have to be, but it would look better on my college applications."

"It is now, you made it so by asking," Mr. Stark said. "I'll talk to Pep and she'll set it all up."

"Awesome, awesome," Peter said. "That sounds great, Mr. Stark."

He tried to find a way to convey how exciting this was to May. Since she already thought he had an internship where he went in and learned things. Peter settled on "this time it's with Mr. Stark himself!"

May nodded and looked concerned, not excited. She kept glancing at the TV where the news was all over Spider-man today. She said, "Peter, you have to tell me the truth."

"I am, I'm telling you the truth," he said. He heard how much he sounded like he was lying. 

"Peter," she said. "I understand why you didn't tell me, I do. But you gotta tell me the truth."

Peter gave in, it was just a lot of effort. "Okay. Okay. I don't just help Spider-man."

May gave him the keep going look. Peter said, "I also, I'm Spider-man."

May nodded and pressed her hand against her mouth. She looked like she was about to cry. Then she said, "Okay. Okay." She waved with her hand and he came in and they were hugging. "You're too young to do this."

"But I've had these powers for, like, a year," Peter said. "I can't sit on my hands. That's not how you raised me, right?"

"I'd be okay with you sitting on your hands sometimes," May said. "You could have gotten really hurt with that bus."

"I couldn't let kids get hurt, though," Peter said. May patted his back. 

"I know, I know," she said. 

Her updated Spider-man rules versus the helping Spider-man rules weren't that different. He thought about spending his last snow day out being Spider-man, but May really wanted to watch movies and have family time and he liked family time, too. It was an equally good plan. He was pretty sure MJ would agree. 

When he told MJ about it, as in "you can't make me do things anymore now that May knows," she said he should tell Ned.

"He's the only person in your life who doesn't know," MJ said. "Your circle of friends and family."

"That's really only three people, huh? That's sad for me," Peter said.

"Sure is," MJ said. "I have, like, ten and so does Ned."

"Okay, you have a bigger family than me, come on," Peter said. 

"I have more friends than you and Ned, too," MJ said, grinning. 

"Yeah, more than two," Peter said. "Wow. You're impressive."

"More than you," MJ said. She looked down and blushed and then back up at him. "I only really made you do things in the beginning. And then you realized I was right and did them of your own volition."

"Maybe," Peter said. Ned was out, so it was just the two of them at lunch. "You're not excited about me actually getting the internship, right?"

"Yeah, I hate when you're happy and people help you," MJ said. 

"I thought you didn't think much of Mr. Stark," Peter said. 

"Life forces me to think all the time about people like Tony Stark," MJ said. "Specifically Tony Stark in his relations to you? Whatever." Somehow he liked it when she was dismissive of him. He was pretty sure he knew what that was about. She was dismissive of him, she still liked him and since he liked her, at least a little, he liked that. 

Peter didn't tell Ned. He thought about it over and over again. When he and MJ and Ned were all watching movies, he meant to say it. When they were eating lunch together and Ned started talking about how cool Iron Man was as opposed to, say, Captain America who made PSAs and wasn't a genius with technology. 

"Captain America is still fighting for freedom, I think," Peter said. "I don't know."

He considered telling Ned when Ned was probing why MJ and Peter had secrets. "You can tell me if you two are dating. I wouldn't mind. I don't mind."

"We're not dating. It's just the helping Spider-man thing," Peter said, glaring somewhere past Ned's ear.

One afternoon he and Ned and MJ got off the subway on their way to a lecture at MOMA MJ was insisting they attend. A helicopter spat out dark smoke and spiralled down. "It's crashing," Peter said, obviously. He shoved his backpack at MJ and said, "Run, run."

MJ had his backpack, she turned back to him for a moment and then looked away and ran. 

Ned looked confused. Peter said, "Run, Ned, come on," and pulled at Ned to get away. 

It seemed like an hour of back and forth but it was really just two seconds. The helicopter landed in flames closer to Peter and Peter pivoted so he was between anything flying off and Ned. The floor, the ground underneath him collapsed. 

Peter swam in something black and then he opened his eyes. "What?"

Ned was sitting next to him. He was petting Peter's arm. "Hey, Peter."

"Where are - " Peter tried to sit up and it was very very hard. He was freezing. His clothes were wet and he was freezing again. He hurt everywhere. He needed to narrow that down. His head hurt. He was in a long narrow room, a freezer kind of storage place with empty shelves lining the walls. Peter was slumped against a wall and he saw a few other people, sprawled face up or on their side. No one was talking or seemed awake, but they weren't dead. "What's going on?"

Ned said, "There was a helicopter that fell out of the sky, it crashed, Peter, right in front of us. But you were pulling me out of the way and when the helicopter went straight through the ground and everything collapsed around us, you were shielding me somehow? Then some scary looking guy in a robot suit came through the hole and started grabbing everyone. All of us who fell in. And then the bad guy threw all of us in here and closed the door. He said we're his hostages." Ned exhaled. "Today sucks."

"Yeah," Peter said. "I don't remember any of that. I just remember Choppy."

Ned laughed and stopped suddenly. "The only reason I'm even awake is because of you. You did hit your head. How are you awake?"

"Oh," Peter said. He looked around and said, quietly, "I'm Spider-man. I'm not helping him, I am him."

"Oooooh," Ned said. "Ooooh. Got it. That makes so much sense. So much sense. Wow. How come MJ knows and I don't?"

"She was in my room when I came back," Peter said. He forced himself to sit up. The cold had to be why he was still hurting. It wasn't so cold they were all going to be frozen alive by the end of the day, but maybe it was the kind of cold where they all froze to death in two days. Not good, either way. 

Ned had a few more questions which he asked quietly while Peter limped around and checked on everyone else. There were eight unconscious adults, no one who was having trouble breathing or had visible broken bones. So that was pretty fantastic news. Then Peter pressed on the door of the place. "I think I can get this open."

"Wow, you're that strong? That's awesome," Ned said. 

"It is," Peter said. MJ never said Peter's powers were awesome. "But this cold is hard on me, man."

"Because spiders are bad in the cold," Ned said, whispering. "I wondered why MJ kept bringing that up."

"Yeah, after the bus thing, she had to come get me and give me like five layers to warm me up enough to get home. Then she saw me in my underwear again," Peter said. He was testing some of the parts of the door. 

"How many times has she seen you in your underwear?"

"Just twice," Peter said. He shoved at the place where the doors met. He'd need to really concentrate. "Wait, three times. It's just when she first found out, I was in my suit and I took it off and I was just in my underwear and she made fun of me because they were boxers and also too big." He took a deep breath and thought, come on, come on, and pushed. The doors gave enough that with one more deep breath he was able to crack an opening. 

"Stay there and I'll see where we are," Peter said, going through the open door. They were in some kind of tunnel. Abandoned subway tunnel? He got excited for a minute there because that was so cool, but it wasn't helpful. He saw stairs and pulled himself up through a narrow opening. Hopefully they wouldn't have to carry anyone to safety because it would be tough. But then he found a weird half door and pushed it open. He was in the street, a very deserted street. He looked up at the sky and saw Iron Man and Vision fighting someone in the sky. Probably the Robot Suit guy. But Peter could also hear sirens, not too far from him. 

He ran back down. Most of the other people were up and moving. Two were helping up the one older lady who seemed to be the most injured. Peter started waving people up. "Come on, if you can, this way." He told them to go towards the sirens. 

He and Ned were the last ones out, helping the poor lady. Peter told Ned to go ahead, but Ned insisted on staying with him. The lady said, "Are you sure you're okay? You look like shit, kid."

"Yeah, it looks worse than it is," Peter said. He was still freezing. It had already been a cold day and however long in a big fridge wasn't the best for him. He wished his suit wasn't with MJ in his backpack so he could turn on the heater. 

They got the lady up and Peter handed her off to Ned, lagging behind the two of them. He said, "Ned, let me have your phone." 

"Got it," Ned said, passing it back. He went up to the barrier where the EMTs were waving them forwards. 

Peter stood where he was, fumbling the codes to call Mr. Stark the first two times. He was so cold and his fingers were getting numb. Finally he got through. "Hey, Mr. Stark. How's it going with that bad guy?"

"Not great, kid, he has hostages hidden in the subway. Where are you? I wouldn't mind if you were on your way."

"I'm right down here, actually, and he doesn't have hostages now. Or at least, he doesn't have the ones that were with me," Peter said. He waved a little. 

"That's good news," Mr. Stark said. There was silence for a few seconds. "Well, look at you, you liberated all the hostages. How'd you do that?"

"I was a hostage, and my friend Ned. But only Ned knows I'm who, uh, I am," Peter said. 

"Impressed all over again, come suit up," Mr. Stark said. 

"Oh, man, I would love to, but my suit's with my friend and I don't know where she is. Also, I think I'm a little injured," Peter said. He walked slowly towards the EMTs. "I'm really cold, that always fucks with me. Sorry, maybe I can help --"

"Stop, you already did extremely well, I'm sending some help for you," Mr. Stark said. 

"Oh, no, don't worry," Peter said. He sat down, walking was hard. "I'm good." He closed his eyes. 

He was really cold.

Then he opened his eyes and he was toasty warm. He was also somewhere else. He looked up and it was a very bright light. May leaned over and he smiled at her. She said, "You're at Stark's place. He has his own medbay here. Which is good, because you were being, Peter, you were really hurt."

"Was I?" Peter struggled to sit up a little. "I didn't feel that bad, May."

"Well, you lost a lot of blood. You had a head wound and a concussion, three broken ribs, a few more broken bones in your arm and your leg, I don't know how you were walking," she said, with a ragged breath.

"But I heal fast, I told you, really fast," Peter said. "I bet nothing's broken now."

"You weren't healing that fast," May said. "Tony Stark got you here after you passed out and warmed you up and now you're healing fast. Yes, nothing's broken now. But when that man called me --"

"I'm okay now," Peter said. "Or I will be pretty soon."

"You were practically blue, your fingers and toes, and bruises everywhere, and I could see where your broken bones were --," May said. She inhaled and pushed at her glasses. "But you're okay now, you're right. You did good."

"Thanks," Peter said. "Thanks."

He didn't mean to fall asleep but he did, anyway. He woke up briefly when Mr. Stark came in and repeated that Peter had done good. Mr. Stark also said, "That's some real hero stuff, doing that before passing out. You should have waited to pass out until that girl you like could see you." Mr. Stark tapped his fingers on the hospital bed. "People find that hot, self-sacrifice."

"Chicks dig it?" Peter almost laughed. 

"Instead it was just me, and I nearly had a heart attack," Mr. Stark said. Peter watched the man tap his fingers again, a quick rhythm on the blanket. 

The man was worried, Peter thought. He wasn't even joking that much about the heart attack. "I heal fast," Peter said. 

Mr. Stark nodded, and said, "Sure. Sure." 

Peter fell asleep again, he was so warm and cozy. When he woke up, the IV was gone and he had his own pajamas on the seat next to the bed. He was thrilled to get out of this hospital dress thing. It wasn't uncomfortable, but it was awkward. He took them into the bathroom. His room had its own bathroom, with a door that closed, which wasn't impressive, but the size of the shower with the little chair was impressive. Peter glanced at himself in the mirror, he still looked pale and his hair was basically a nest but overall, not bad. 

He got back in bed, though he didn't pull up the blankets like he was going back to sleep. He was probably leaving soon. He saw his backpack and reached in for his phone. MJ showed up at the door and said, "I have your phone." She swallowed and handed it over. 

"Oh, you're here," he said. He got back on the bed and crossed his legs. He opened his phone and started catching up. He'd only been at this place for a day or so. 

MJ said, "Yeah, I'm here. May called me. I called Ned, too, but since you're getting out tomorrow morning, he said he'd see you at home." She sat down in the chair by Peter's bed. She was definitely avoiding looking at his face. Every time he glanced up, she was looking at her jeans or her hands. "I'm glad you're okay, duh."

"I'm glad you're okay, too," he said. "Nobody got too badly hurt, right?"

MJ looked up at him and said, "No. It wasn't near where you were, and it wasn't something you could have done anything about, but like ten people died. Because of the bad guy. Before he crashed the helicopter."

"Fuck," Peter said. 

"Would have been more if you hadn't been there," she said. 

"Yeah," Peter said. "Sometimes it feels really small, what we do, you know? Not exactly life-saving."

"We don't do anything, you do it all," MJ said. "And really small makes a huge difference in people's lives. Somebody didn't have to scrape up $50 or $100 just to replace a car window so they could drive to work. Somebody doesn't have to walk by used condoms and other shit that people dumped on their sidewalks and that makes a difference, too."

"With the dumping, I think more about the people who have trouble walking and they have a steady place to walk," Peter said. "Even if the garbage is gross, that's a little more motivating."

"Oh, that's a good one," MJ said. "Some of those sidewalks are already pretty fucked up, though."

"So they're not so bad," Peter said. "Why am I trying to make you feel better?" He grinned at her but she wasn't looking at him. 

"I was worried about you, more than Ned for once," she said. 

"Ned was right there," Peter said. "He knew I was okay."

"He did not," MJ said. "He saw you pass out and was all, Peter, Peter! Until Iron Man came down and took you away before anyone saw. Don't worry, you're not on the news."

"Oh, good," Peter said. 

"You're kind of on the news, the hostages were all, these teen boys were so helpful! But they don't realize you actually opened the doors and saved them," MJ said. 

"Okay," Peter said. He searched on twitter for everything that had happened. "Thanks for coming by, I didn't mean to sound like I wasn't happy to see you."

"Sure," MJ said. 

"MJ," he said.

"Peter," she said. She was actually looking him in the eye. She looked exhausted. 

"Sorry I made you worry," Peter said.

MJ shrugged. "You make me worry all the time, you're not the smartest person I know."

"I'm pretty smart," Peter said. 

"I didn't mean it like that, and you know it," MJ said. 

She seemed, he couldn't read her. He could never read her. But he felt that she wanted to stay and make sure he was alright. He scooted over on the bed. "Why don't you come up here and we can see how many channels Tony gets in here?"

"Come on up on your bed?" She rolled her eyes but she did get up and push him aside as she sat down on top of the blankets next to him. She grabbed the remote. "Okay, let's see if anything decent is on."

He was suddenly pretty tired so he just shifted until he was comfortably not exactly cuddling with MJ. She patted his head. "Tomorrow you need to wash your hair," she said. 

"This is washed," Peter said. "Trust me, someone took care of it.Just not, like, combed or brushed."

"I have a brush," she said quietly. The TV was making noise but it was also pretty faint. She actually started brushing his hair. It felt nice. "You need a haircut. Or just commit to long hair. Grow it to your shoulders. You'd look hilarious with long hair."

"Maybe I'd look awesome," Peter said. More like mumbled. He was definitely cuddling with MJ now. "Maybe I'll just grow it long enough for, like, Oscar Isaac man bun."

"It's you, it's a boy bun. The opposite of hot," she said. 

He said, "You like me, don't you?" 

She sighed. "Yeah, mostly. We can talk about it later."

"Good, because I am about to fall asleep," he said. "But I'll remember this."


End file.
